DiMeo Crime Family
The DiMeo crime family is a powerful fictional mob family from the HBO series The Sopranos. It is loosely based on the DeCavalcante crime family, a real New Jersey Mafia family. History Formation The DiMeo crime family is believed to have been formed in Northern New Jersey in the 1950s. Dominic DiMeo is believed to have been the first Official Boss. Key members from the 1960s include brothers John Francis "Johnny Boy" Soprano and Corrado "Junior" Soprano, as well as Michele "Feech" La Manna. The Sopranos were a key faction in the DiMeo Crime Family, running two separate crews led by Johnny Boy and Junior, and also had longstanding ties with the five New York Families (particularly the Lupertazzi Crime Family led by Carmine Lupertazzi). Despite DiMeo's reign as Boss, it is implied throughout the series and stated in the finale by Tony Soprano that the two Soprano brothers unofficially ran North Jersey. Unrest of '83 During the early 1980s many DiMeo crime family members and associates were arrested, causing the biggest blow to the family since its formation. Amongst those arrested were Michele 'Feech' La Manna, sentenced to 20 years. It was during the Unrest of '83 that Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero, a cat burglar and associate in the Johnny Boy Soprano crew, stood up for Johnny Boy Soprano. Bonpensiero, also a close friend of Johnny Boy's son, Tony Soprano, would make his bones by killing a small time bookie, as seen in Walk like a Man and become a made man shortly thereafter. Rise of Tony Soprano Johnny Boy Soprano died of emphysema in 1986. Before his death, he requested that his son become the capo of the Soprano crew. Tony, one of the fastest rising stars in the Family after holding up Feech La Manna's card game with Aprile crew chief Giacomo "Jackie" Aprile, was a relatively young man to be a capo at the age of 27. Tony's transition into captain was aided by the loyalty of Bonpensiero, longtime Johnny Boy Soprano soldier Peter Paul "Paulie Walnuts" Gualtieri, and childhood friend Silvio Dante. Tony would also avoid a long stint in prison when he missed a failed hijacking involving his cousin, Tony Blundetto. Caught by the police, Tony B. ended up spending 17 years in jail, while Tony became one of the top earners in the DiMeo Family. Aprile Ascends to Acting Boss Dominic DiMeo was convicted and given a life sentence in prison in 1995. Jackie Aprile was named Acting Boss of the family by DiMeo, much to the chagrin of Junior Soprano. It was assumed that a Soprano would take over the reins when DiMeo died or went to prison, but DiMeo was impressed by Jackie Aprile's leadership abilities (the Aprile crew has been the top earner and best-run crew of the family for years). War of '99 When Jackie Aprile was diagnosed with cancer in 1998, his closest friend—Junior's nephew Tony Soprano—took over Jackie's responsibilities to Junior's displeasure. Uncle Junior and Tony were at that point at each other's throats because Junior plotted to murder a rival, "Little Pussy" Malanga, in Malanga's favorite restaurant, Vesuvio, a restaurant owned by Tony's childhood friend Artie Bucco. Tony foiled Junior's plans by ordering Silvio Dante to set Artie's restaurant on fire. Tony's nephew Christopher Moltisanti and his associate Brendan Filone were hijacking trucks from Comley Trucking, a business that paid protection to Junior. Junior's enforcer, Mikey Palmice, killed Brendan, and Russian associates performed a mock execution on Christopher under Junior's orders. When Jackie Aprile died in 1999, and tensions between Junior and Tony were at an all-time high, it was assumed that the two would go to war over the top position. Tony instead deferred to Junior, giving him the title as Boss. This was effectively in name only, as Tony still controlled the capos in the family and was the main conduit to the Lupertazzi Family, represented by underboss "Johnny Sack." Tensions flared up between Junior and Tony after Tony's mother, Livia Soprano, revealed that Tony was seeing a psychiatrist and had been meeting secretly with Junior's capos. An assassination attempt on Tony was made, but Tony managed to escape with just an injury to the ear, leaving one hitman dead. After the FBI showed Tony that the failed attempt was a plan concocted by Junior, Tony ordered the deaths of key members of Junior's crew: soldier Chucky Signore, consigliere Mikey Palmice, and capo Philly Parisi. Junior Soprano was spared when he was indicted by the federal government (along with underboss Joey Sasso and capo Larry Boy Barese), and because Tony wished to keep him as the lightning rod that took the hits for the Family. Tony then took over virtually all of Junior's business and became the Boss of the now renamed Soprano Crime Family. Former Junior Soprano soldiers Gigi Cestone and Pasquale "Patsy" Parisi defected over to the Soprano crew. Tony named Silvio Dante as his consigliere, and promoted soldier Peter Paul "Paulie Walnuts" Gualtieri to captain of his old crew, renamed the Gualtieri crew. Although Junior has been usurped of nearly all power and is under house arrest awaiting trial, he still retained the title of Boss and acted as a mentor and advisor to Tony. One of the factors that brought the two closer together was when Junior was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2001. However, Tony continued to punish Junior through business arrangements. Junior managed to beat the disease before the RICO trial against him started. FBI Crackdown & Investigation After years of investigating Tony Soprano (at one point trying to turn him into an informant) and failing to connect him to anything (the closest they came was pinning him to the murder of associate Matthew Bevilaqua, which was tossed out when an eyewitness retracted his statement after finding out one of the shooters may have been Tony Soprano), the FBI arrested (?) Tony in 2000 when it was discovered that he had been extorting Davey Scatino. While busting out Scatino's sporting goods store, Tony had been receiving stolen airline tickets, which was discovered due to information given by turncoat Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero and when Tony gave one of the stolen tickets to his mother, Livia. The case fell through when Big Pussy "disappeared" and when Livia died of a stroke. The FBI continued to build a case against Tony, but fell on difficult times when a wiretapping of his basement was compromised and because of the deaths of several FBI informants. In 2002, the RICO trial against Junior Soprano ended in a hung jury, but the government moved to schedule a re-trial, meaning Junior had to stay under house arrest. Due to his diminished position in the family because of the house arrest, longtime Junior Soprano loyalist Robert "Bobby Bacala" Baccalieri was named Deputy Capo of the Junior Soprano crew. Periods of Unrest In the meantime, the Soprano Family continued to stay in a period of transition, with Richie Aprile, older brother of Jackie Aprile, taking over the previously defunct (due to the death of Jackie Sr.) Aprile crew after his release from prison in 2000. Richie became a threat to Tony's power, crippling associate Beansie Gaeta and disobeying Tony repeatedly when it came to selling cocaine on garbage routes. Richie also came to Junior about overthrowing Tony, but Junior decided that he would be better off with his nephew. Tony caught wind of Richie's plot and set the wheels in motion to whack him, but he was spared the trouble when Richie was murdered by his fiancée, who coincidentally happened to be Tony's sister Janice Soprano. When Gigi Cestone, a Soprano crew soldier set to take over the Aprile crew, died of a heart attack, Tony had no choice but to install rival Ralph Cifaretto as captain. Tony had longtime problems with Ralph, despite the fact that the two grew up together with Jackie Aprile and Silvio Dante. Tony, in a fit of rage, once hit Ralph after he murdered a Bada Bing dancer named Tracee. Ralph also took Jackie Aprile, Jr. under his wing, even though Tony and Jackie Sr. both wanted to keep Jackie Jr. out of the family business. When Jackie Jr. held up one of Ralph's poker games and shot at made men Furio Giunta and Christopher Moltisanti in an attempt to emulate his father, Ralph had no choice but to order Jackie's death at the hands of Vito Spatafore. Despite disagreements with Tony, Ralph became the top earner in the family, running lucrative construction deals such as the Esplanade Construction site and HUD scams in Newark. Ralph also owned a racehorse named Pie-O-My that died due to a stable fire. Convinced that Ralph killed the horse in order to pay for his disabled son's medical bills, Tony attacked and killed Ralph. He blamed the disappearance of Ralph on the New York family, particularly Johnny Sack, who had a problem with Ralph due to a joke that was made about his wife, Ginny. Vito Spatafore was named captain of the Aprile crew in 2002. During that time, Tony Soprano began to groom his cousin/nephew, Christopher Moltisanti, into a leadership role. Christopher, already a young made man, was named acting Capo of the Gualtieri crew when Paulie Walnuts was jailed on a gun charge (which was later dropped). Patsy Parisi was dissatisfied with this choice, as was Silvio Dante who wanted to see Patsy as Capo. Christopher was also named by Tony as his successor, but that was compromised when Christopher was found out to have a serious heroin addiction and was sent to rehab. Christopher temporarily cleaned up and proved his loyalty to Tony by giving up his fiancée, Adriana La Cerva, for execution when it was discovered that she had been cooperating with the FBI. As a reward for putting the Family above his own fiancée, Chris was made captain of the Gualtieri crew when Paulie Walnuts was elevated to Underboss. It was also during this period that the working relationship between the Lupertazzi Crime Family and the Sopranos reached a rocky point in 2002, when the two families joined together to control the Esplanade construction site in Newark, New Jersey. Disagreements over the split of the money of the Esplanade, plus the HUD projects that Tony was keeping secret from Lupertazzi and the displeasure of Johnny Sack with Ralph Cifaretto, nearly caused the two families to go to war. Both Johnny Sack and boss Carmine Lupertazzi blamed one another for the conflict, and reached out to Tony to whack the other as a means of ending the conflict. In both cases, cooler heads prevailed and the two families worked out a deal. Class of 2004 The prison release of "The Class of 2004" (Phil Leotardo, Angelo Garepe, Michele "Feech" La Manna, and Tony Blundetto) along with the death of Carmine Lupertazzi set off another series of conflicts. "Little" Carmine Lupertazzi and Johnny Sackwent to war over the position of Boss in New York, and Tony had to deal with the insubordination of Feech La Manna and his cousin, Tony Blundetto. One problem in his family was solved when Feech La Manna was sent back to prison after stolen flat-screen televisions were found in his garage by a probation officer called on the orders of Tony Soprano. The other problem was complicated when Tony B. killed Lupertazzi associate Joe Peeps on the orders of Lupertazzi Capo Rusty Millio and consigliere Angelo Garepe. When Angelo was killed in retaliation, Tony B. went after Phil Leotardo and killed his brother, Billy Leotardo, in an unsanctioned hit. Faced with threats of war and torture from Johnny Sack and Phil Leotardo plus unease in his own family, Tony Soprano was left with no choice but to kill Tony B. himself. The relationship between New York and New Jersey families was further complicated when Johnny Sack was busted by the FBI and sent to prison to await trial, and Phil Leotardo, still nursing hard feelings about Blundetto, was named Acting Boss of the Lupertazzi Family. Shooting of Tony Soprano During his house arrest and trials/re-trials, Junior would develop signs of dementia due to a head injury sustained after being hit with a boom microphone and knocked down the courthouse steps, as well as several mini-strokes over the years. Junior's increasingly diminished capacity led him to shoot Tony in the abdomen, mistakenly thinking that Tony was former already deceased nemesis "Little Pussy" Malanga. The shooting of Tony Soprano set off a media frenzy, with reporters stalking the Soprano house and outside the hospital where Tony lay in a coma. Junior Soprano was arrested and questioned about the shooting, which he insisted must have been a self-inflicted gunshot by Tony, whom he labeled as a "depression case". The captains of the Family agreed to cut all ties to Junior and allow Tony to decide what happens to him. Junior was judged to be mentally unstable and was sent to a mental rehabilitation facility. With Tony incapacitated, his consigliere Silvio Dante took over as Acting Boss of the Soprano Crime Family; however, Silvio was unable to handle the pressure of being Boss, and suffered an asthma attack that put him in the hospital. Tony, after a near-death experience, would awake from his coma soon after, just in time to settle a dispute over the future of Barone Sanitation with Johnny Sack and Phil Leotardo. Tension with New York While in jail, Johnny Sack reached out to Tony through Phil Leotardo to whack his insubordinate capo, Rusty Millio. Tony refused at first, but had a change of heart after talking to Johnny Sack at his daughter's wedding. Tony conducted the execution of Millio with caution, bringing in two men from Naples to carry out the hit on Rusty and his soldier, Eddie Pietro. Johnny Sack later plead guilty in his RICO trial to lessen his sentence, thus making Phil Leotardo the boss in all but title. More complications occurred in the organization when Vito Spatafore, the top earning captain of the Aprile crew and cousin-in-law to Phil Leotardo, fled New Jersey after his homosexuality was revealed. Carlo Gervasi was named by Tony as the replacement point man for the Family's construction interests. After hiding in New Hampshire for months, Vito returned to New Jersey, approaching Tony about starting up a separate operation in Atlantic City involving prostitution. Tony considered the request, but ultimately decided that Vito needed to be taken out in order to placate Phil Leotardo, who was incensed about Vito's lifestyle. However, Phil got to Vito first, breaking into his hotel room and watched while soldiers Dominic "Fat Dom" Gamiello and Gerry Torciano beat his cousin-in-law to death. Tony, realizing that Phil was sending the message that New York can do whatever they want, decided to hurt Phil financially as payback for Vito. Tony reasoned that a war with New York would prevent his family from earning. However, when Fat Dom went to Satriale's on a delivery stop and made jokes about Vito's death and implied Carlo was a homosexual, Silvio and Carlo killed the New York soldier. Tony's response to Vito's murder was to blow up a wire room held by Phil in Sheepshead Bay — Benny Fazio was on the scene for the explosion. After a sit-down between the New Jersey and New York Families, a truce was nearly reached before a reference from Little Carmine to the death of Billy Leotardo resulted in Phil Leotardo storming out. At a conference with Gerry Torciano, Albie Cianfiore, and Butch DeConcini, a decision was reached to take out a high-ranking member of the Soprano crime family. Butch was particularly vocal in his desire to kill Tony, but Phil had more sense than that, and decided against it. Phil suffered a massive coronary soon afterwards and FBI Agent Harris informed Tony that someone on his crew could be in danger. In an attempt to clear the air between them, Tony paid a visit to Phil's hospital bed, telling him of his own near-death experience. During his disagreement with Phil about an asbestos removal project, Tony reminds him of their discussion in the hospital but Phil snubs him. Tony retaliates by taking two members of Phil's crew off a project payroll and then, after which, one of them threatens Meadow. Tony retaliates by nearly beating him to death. Phil refuses to meet with Tony after this incident and war between the two families seems imminent. The New York-Jersey War It becomes clear that there is no compromise available between NY and NJ, and as a result the wheels begin to move. New York convinces Burt Gervasi to switch sides, and he approaches Silvio Dante to join in on a coup d'état attempt on Soprano. The likely idea is that if Tony is killed, Silvio will take over and make peace, and Gervasi will be rewarded. Silvio responds by betraying Burt Gervasi, and strangles him to death in his home with a garotte. Soprano knew what had to be done, and arranged for Phil Leotardo to be executed. At the same time, Phil had a war-room discussion where he arranged for New Jersey to be wiped out. He put contracts on Tony Soprano, Silvio Dante and Bobby Bacala. The hit on Phil went awry however, as Phil's Ukranian mistress and her father who was mistaken for Phil were killed. The hits on New Jersey go much better however. Bobby Bacala is killed at a model train shop when two assassins ambush him. Word comes down that Leotardo has vanished, and the Soprano Family decides to do the same. However, as Patsy Parisi and Silvio Dante attempt to go on the lam, they are ambushed by a pair of New York hitmen outside the Bada Bing. In the ensuing carnage, Silvio Dante is shot multiple times but Parisi escapes. Silvio is rushed to a hospital where he is left in a coma. Tony and some soldiers head to a safe house to hide, as the search for Phil continued, and Tony attempts to sleep while holding the AR-10 rifle in his arms, which Bobby gave to him on his 47th birthday, surrounded by bodyguards. Tony came out of hiding shortly after and arranged a sit down with Butch DeConcini and Albie Cianflone through "Little" Carmine Lupertazzi and retired Five Families Boss, George Paglieri. During this meeting the New York Family agreed that Phil Leotardo's decision to go to war with North Jersey was a bad one; and had gone too far with killing Bobby and that they would back off. Tony also demanded that they give him a location on Phil to pay back for killing Bobby. Butch refused to tell of Phil's whereabouts, but was willing to give some kind of payment in retribution for Bobby's death. After Tony had given FBI Agent Harris information on two Pakastani men that had been hanging around The Bada Bing he eventually told Tony that Phil had been seen making a call from a pay-phone at a gas station. The Soprano Family began patrolling the area's gas stations looking for Phil. It wasn't long before Walden Belfiore, a Soprano Soldier, caught up with Phil at the gas station. Phil was shot in the head in front of his wife and grandchildren thus ending the New York/New Jersey War bringing the HBO series to its final conclusion. Organization Structure During the Reign of the Official Boss (Pre-1995) The Administration Boss - Domenico DiMeo Caporegime Soprano Crew Junior Crew Aprile Crew Atlieri Crew Barese Crew Curto Crew As of January 1999 The Administration Boss - Domenico DiMeo * Acting Boss - Jackie Aprile Caporegime Soprano Crew Junior Crew Aprile Crew(Without Leadership) Atlieri Crew Barese Crew Curto Crew As of December 1999 Administration Boss - Junior Soprano Consigliere - Michael Palmice Underboss - Joseph Sasso Caporegime Soprano Crew Junior Crew Aprile Crew (Without Leadership) Atlieri Crew Barese Crew Curto Crew As of January 2000 Administration Front Boss - Junior Soprano Street Boss - Tony Soprano Advisor - Silvio Dante Caporegime Gualltieri Crew Junior Crew Aprile Crew Gervasi Crew Barese Crew Curto Crew As of March 2001-Sept. 2002 Administration Front Boss - Junior Soprano Street Boss - Tony Soprano Advisor - Silvio Dante Caporegime Gualltieri Crew Junior Crew Cifaretto Crew Gervasi Crew Barese Crew Curto Crew As of March 2004 Administration Front Boss - Junior Soprano Street Boss - Tony Soprano Advisor - Silvio Dante Caporegime Gualtieri Crew Junior Crew Spatafore Crew Gervasi Crew LaManna Crew Curto Crew Barese Crew (Marginalized) As of March 2006 Administration Boss - Tony Soprano Consigliere - Silvio Dante Underboss - Paulie Gualtieri Caporegime Moltisanti Crew Junior Crew Spatafore Crew Gervasi Crew Barese Crew Curto Crew LaManna Crew (Defunct) As of April 2007 Administration Boss - Tony Soprano Consigliere - Silvio Dante Underboss - Paulie Gualtieri Acting Underboss - Robert Baccalieri, Sr Caporegime Moltisanti Crew Junior Crew Spatafore Crew Gervasi Crew Barese Crew Curto Crew LaManna Crew (Defunct) Post-Dec 2007 Administration Boss - Tony Soprano Consigliere - Silvio Dante (In a Coma) Underboss - Paulie Gualtieri Caporegime Parisi Crew Junior Crew New Gualtieri Crew Gervasi Crew Barese Crew Curto Crew LaManna Crew (Defunct) Crews Category:Fictional families